MANITOULIN—Manitoulin Island has been selected as the destination for Tourism Ontario’s ‘The Best of Outdoor Ontario’ contest.

The seven-day adventure on the world’s largest freshwater island, valued at $11,000, includes round-trip airfare from anywhere in Canada or the continental USA to Sudbury, a guided trip to Manitoulin Island featuring a floatplane fly-in to the North Channel of Lake Huron, a traditional aboriginal feast with private dance performance, overnight camping and sailing trip to the Benjamin Islands, three nights at the new Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre, a canoe heritage tour of the North Channel, horse and teepee overnight adventure including glamping and swimming with horses and $4,000 in outdoor gear from Mountain Equipment Co-op.

“For 10 years Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation has held an outdoor adventure contest,” explained Michael Hora, executive and ministry liaison with the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation. “This year it is called ‘The Best of Outdoor Ontario Contest.’ Every year we strategically bring focus to both an adventure partner and a regional partner. The emphasis is on Northern and/or rural Ontario to raise awareness about the accessible adventures and outdoor experiences that are available in Ontario. Though we lead with ‘outdoor adventure’ as the theme in our campaign, the aim is to highlight not only the outdoors but also the breadth of local culinary and cultural experiences.”

The contest campaign includes the 2014 Ontario Outdoor Adventure calendar with 265,000 copies featuring a full-page promotion. Online, the contest will be promoted through the website www.ontariotravel.net/outdoor and through emails to approximately 50,000 subscribers.

“As well, we do in-market presentations at travel shows (such as the upcoming Toronto Adventure Show, February 21-23, reaching close to 30,000 attendees) with signage, a promotional booth and presentations in the show theatre,” continued Mr. Hora. “We also promote through social media channels such as Facebook, bloggers, Twitter and others. Also in this year’s contest we have two very popular couple bloggers (Dave and Deb) www.ThePlanetD.com as celebrity hosts along with the Great Spirit Circle Trail (GSCT) to bring more global attention to the world’s largest freshwater island.”

“With the GSCT as the featured contest, we are committed to growing the Manitoulin tourism industry and this is a great activity that will draw attention not only to the GSCT and its partners delivering the prize, but also to Manitoulin and all of the tourism suppliers in the region,” commented GSCT CEO Kevin Eshkawkogan. “We’re asking that anyone in the tourism industry utilize their social media networks to assist in brightening the spotlight on Manitoulin by ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ this activity on the OTMPC, GSCT and any other sites out there. The Island as a whole gains to benefit from GSCT’s involvement in this contest.”

There is no purchase necessary to enter the contest, which runs until June 30, 2014. The contest is open to legal residents of Canada and the United States who are at least 25 years of age or older at the time of entry. For more information, or to enter the contest, visit www.ontariotravel.net/outdoor to enter online.